Roger Excoffon, a forgotten centenary

A friend, who is by no means a typophile, brought to my attention this article from the culture blog of The Economist. It's about the centenary of the birth of Roger Excoffon, the great designer of the types Mistral, Banco, and Antique Olive, among others, and the man who gave Air France its trademark look in its heyday. To my French colleagues who were, apparently, oblivious to the event, I say "honte à toi! Honte inexpiable!"

I must admit (with some guilt) that I tended to dislike most of Excoffon's typefaces until I saw this lecture given by Process Type Foundry, where Eric Olson talks (near the 23 minute mark) about the beginnings of Excoffon's Antique Olive. Becoming aware of how well Excoffon's typefaces had been used in the past made me appreciate them. I still cringe when I see mercilessly distorted Antique Olive and Banco though.

Seems to be the right time and location to announce this: I am currently halfway through the layout of an upcoming book about Roger Excoffon. The book will focus on Excoffon's life and achievements, and will also contain memories, recollections and essays from his friends and admirers, such as Peter Knapp, Jose Mendoza y Almeida, Hrant Papazian, Jean-Francois Porchez, Massin, Yves Perrousseaux, Francois Richaudeau, et al. It will be filled with high quality illustrations, rare documents and photographs, and the text will be in french and english.

The book, "Roger Excoffon, gentleman & typographe", is due to be released around spring 2011 at Atelier Perrousseaux (www.perrousseaux.com).

Anyone in London on 26 October within reach of the St Bride Library might find it worthwhile to attend the following event at 7 pm:

This year marks the centenary of the birth of Roger Excoffon, arguably the most famous and innovative French type designer of the 20th century. For the 2010 Beatrice Warde Memorial Lecture, Sébastien Morlighem will share his research on Excoffon from the past three years, as an introduction to the forthcoming book Roger Excoffon et la Fonderie Olive (Bibliothèque typographique). The lecture will be an opportunity to unveil many previously unknown documents and to discuss several aspects of his work for the Fonderie Olive.